Gift biz on wrapped episode 51, But it wasn't until I was inspired to create my own product and go all in that I've found true success. Hi, this is John Lee, Dumas of entrepreneur on fire, and you're listening to the gift of biz unwrapped, and now it's time to light it up. Welcome to gift biz, unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop and grow your business. And now here's your host, Sue Monheit. Hi there. I'm Sue and welcome to the gift biz unramped podcast.
Whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or are just getting started, you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your business. And today I have joining us Maya Lieberman. Maya is the inventor of shape and store freezer containers, and she is on a mission to make homemade meals more convenient than fast food. Starting with a love of baking. She first invented a container that would portion and freeze homemade cookie dough. From there.
The product line grew as she realized that her freezer containers can make everyday meal preparation quick and easy. Maya lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband, two girls and a pet Bonnie. Welcome to the show. Maya, Thank you, Sue. I'm excited to be here. I Am thrilled to have you here and I can't wait to dive into your product because it's just so original. But before we start that I like to align the conversation around the life of a motivational candle.
This light shines on you while you share all your stories, your experiences, and your expertise. Are you ready to light it Up? I am ready. Awesome. Let's envision your candle. What color is it? And what's the motivational quote on the camera For me, my candle would have to be red because it reminds me to always be bold and to be confident. So that is the color I am picking.
And right now, along with my business, I teach business courses and I share one of these quotes with my students all the time. The quote is there are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure. So that's a quote from Colin Powell of all people. Ooh, I love Colin Powell. And I also love that quote because it really positions and lays the groundwork that success is available and open to anybody. For Sure. I agree.
Okay. I want to dive right into this product because I think it is super interesting. Now gift biz listeners. You're probably going to have to jump over to the website to take a look at her product. And my I'm sure it's front and center somewhere on your website, right? Yeah. We have a video right there, front and center show the, how the product works.
Perfect. But before we do that, since most people are listening to the podcast and they're either driving to work or they're in their shop or they're walking their dog doing laundry, whatever. Describe a little bit of what the product is so we can kind of ground everybody before we get started. Yes. So my Product are called shapen store freezer containers, which are containers that are designed to be used to shape individual portions of foods.
So think if you're making a soup or a chili or a stew or rice or any kind of food, really that you're preparing, if you just make some extra, you have leftovers. Instead of using those plastic baggies, you can put them in my containers and they will make individual portions for you. So you just pour it in. And then when you freeze it, you can just pop out however many portions you want and put it in the microwave. So everything's ready to go organizes your freezer.
You don't have little brochures everywhere, all over the freezer. They're all in very thin, wide containers that are easily to remove. And It's super interesting. And it sounds like something that maybe had been around, like if, if you haven't pictured it before, it might be something that you're thinking you might've seen before, but I guarantee you, you haven't seen these before. They're so cool. Cause they are stackable in your freezer.
So they're great for freezer space and they're just all around. Totally creative. So I was so impressed. I met Maya at the New York now show and I saw this product and I'm like, Oh my gosh, what an idea? I need to know the story. So that's what we are all going to learn right now. All right. So let's go back to the beginning. Maya, where in the world did this thought come from? I know you were already a Baker.
You were talking about that, you know, as we were doing the intro, but how in the world did you think of this product? Well, just to start with, I had always been an entrepreneurial spirit. My parents were entrepreneurs. I had always wanted to have my own business, but you know, I'd had like different kinds of businesses where I was had a confectionary business. I had a jewelry business, but it wasn't until I was inspired to create my own product and go all in that I found true success.
So as you mentioned, so I'm a Baker, right? And at the time when I came up with the idea, I was taking time off to stay home with my kids who were about three and five years old at the time. So I had stopped working for let's say about a year. And I was really into those inventors shows, you know, like shark tank and in Canada we have dragons den, which is the version of shark tank here. And I was so motivated.
Cause I would see all these people who would come on and they like, Oh, I had an idea. And you know, I ran with it and now I have my own successful business. And I thought from my experience, I had marketing experience. I have a business degree. I worked in product development for a retailer here. So I had all the building blocks to start my own business. So I thought, well, why don't I try something like this now? You know, it's a good break in my career to do something like
this. So as you said, I'm loved to bake and you know, they always say do a business with something that you love. So I love cookie dough and I love cookies. And I thought, you know, I was baking with my children because I love to bake and I want them to learn to love, to bake. And although it's very fun as I'm sure you can imagine when you're baking with little girls like that, they're not so adept at putting all the ingredients in the mixing bowl the first time. So we would get a lot of mess.
So I thought, well, what if we had a product that you could have the fresh homemade cookie dough? Because that's really what I want is to have freshly baked cookies for my family, but without having to make the mess every time. And the other problem was that when I would bake with my kids, they would have one cookie, two cookies, and then I would have a whole batch of cookies staring at me, which I would promptly eat. They taste better when they're fresh,
right. So I see Nothing wrong with this Maya, But you know what, if you're doing it every week, it's not, it's not the best, best thing. So I thought, you know, it'd be great if you could have it ready to go for you in the freezer proportion, ready to go so that when you do want a fresh baked cookie on the fly, my kids come home from school or we come back from an activity, you can just pop out a couple of pieces, put them in the toaster oven, they're ready to go.
You don't have to set out and make the batch yourself. And I also don't have the leftover cookies that are staring me in the face at like 11:00 PM at night. So that's what I decided to do. You know, I did my research and I found out there was nothing like that on the market. Up until that point.
I'm sure a lot of your listeners are familiar with the standard way to freeze cookie dough, which is to ball it up and then put it in the freezer and then put it in a plastic baggie, which takes a lot of time. My idea was you would just spread it in close the container. It'll make the portions for you. And then they're ready to go on every Lake. So that was my inspiration. That's how again, So you had this idea, what do you then do with it? What's the next step?
Well, because I had had experience in product development. I knew that I could source local manufacturers. I had the confidence to know that as long as I went out and I researched and I tried to find different people who could help me in my process that I could get it done locally, rather than having to say, hire affirmed, that would help me do the product development. I had the confidence to do it myself.
So what I did was I came up with an idea of how it should look, how the product would look, how it would cut the cookie dough, what shape it should be in. And then I went around to look for manufacturers. So I had my design and then I had to go and find manufacturers who could actually make a tool for me. The hardest part was figuring out the design of the product. So what it would look like because I wanted something that was going to be very efficient, easy to use.
And wouldn't take up a lot of space. That was like my main concern. So once I had that done, then I had to find a manufacturer who could do it for me, who would make a tool and then manufacture the product. So you knew some sources from your prior experience, you had some contacts or knew where you could go to look for a manufacturer. I didn't really have contacts, but I knew that they existed. Yeah. So I knew that it was possible to do it
locally. So that I think was the biggest learning that I had going in that enabled me to have the confidence to make it myself. Okay. So did you, You go into them with just like a hand drawing or a computer drawing Or a computer drawing? Exactly. Yes. So you were to some level of professionalism when you came in and it just wasn't like an image on a napkin or something. Right, right, right. Exactly. Yeah. No, I definitely had it. Yes. An idea of what it was going to be.
And I had the drawing and then yeah, I had to get quotes on how much it would be and you know, what would be made of and things like that. But I had to learn all of that about manufacturing, like what you make a tool out of and why it needs to be made out of a certain material and what size limitations there are.
So all of that and all of that I learned through just asking questions and going to different sources, not just relying on one person that's big learning right there is that you have to get many inputs to make sure that well, you know, what you're hearing from one person actually is consistent. It's not just one person's idea. Like from a, if you're going to a doctor, right. You're going to want to get more than one opinion on something.
So what types of resources are you talking then specifically the manufacturers or online people or, Yeah. No, exactly. But I'm still just talking about the manufacturing phase, so yeah, for sure. So just talking to them about, you know, and costs really when you're going in to a business, trying to create something on your own, there's a tendency for some businesses to try and take advantage.
If they feel like you might not have the experience and the background to know a lot of the things like the pricing and things like that. So that's why I wanted to go to several different sources so that I could get a clear picture of what I can expect. Very good point and give biz listeners. I want to point out that she already knew what she wanted. She came in. And then I think the biggest thing right here is how resourceful you were.
You already knew what you were going to make, but you resourced. Manufacturer's talked to a number of them just to make sure that you were getting consistent information. So you knew you were on the right path. And I think resourcefulness, as we talk about entrepreneurial ship is so important. No, one's going to figure it out for you, but all the information these days is out there in some way, shape or form for us, no matter what we're trying to do, you just have to go find it yourself.
Yeah. That's a great point. Sue. I think like we're at the time when anything is possible with all the information that's available, there's so much that you can do yourself now and you can learn from others. I also reached out to other people that I know who had started their own business. As I said, I was watching Dragon's den here and reaching out to the people who were on the show to learn from them as well and their experiences. And if they had any advice for me. Oh, very good.
That's a really good resource. I wouldn't have thought of. So I appreciate your sharing that too. All right. So you're with the manufacturers. How did you know, and this might've been part of your research already, but would they recommend to you the materials that they thought this product should be made of? Or did you already know that? Wow, no, that's a good question. I did not know the materials that were available.
So what we did do was I did take the recommendation of the manufacturer that I selected and we did some testing and we figured out which was the best material to go with based on this test that we ran. But in the end I actually had to switch over from manufacturer to a different manufacturer because of the pricing. I couldn't make the pricing work with him. Well, that's a bummer. You did all the R and D with him. And then you, then you had to switch over.
Yeah. But I mean, the reason I switched over was because he wasn't willing to work with me on the costing. So then I had to go to a different manufacturer who understood that I was starting out. I was small, you know, I had very limited budget and he was willing to work with me on a different way. So basically what was going on was he was going to charge me just for my per piece cost and I would supply the material.
Whereas the other manufacturer had everything all bundled together and he was upcharging me on certain things. And, you know, I couldn't really hit my price point. I think some of our listeners would be curious and I'm not asking you for specifics, just kind of to get a feel like financially, how do you possibly enter into something like this? I mean, did you, did you take a loan? Did you self-fund it, is it expensive?
Like what, to the extent that you're willing to share kind of an investment, if you're looking at creating a product and going along the path that you went on, what does that look like? It's an excellent question.
I think a lot of times that people think that, and this is the part of this is asking the questions and researching and trying to figure out you have a set budget and figuring out a way to hit that set budget, because it is very tempting to go in and get a big loan and just throw it all at your manufacturing and your inventory. But what I did actually was I had a small budget and I also was involved in a government program that supports entrepreneurs to start new businesses.
So I did that, which gave me some seed money to begin with. So that was actually money given to me by the government, Great resource for us to consider, you know, some of us are in Canada, some of us aren't, you know, we're all listeners are all over the world here, but what types of grants or support is there for new Startups? Yeah. And I think there are in every region, there would be something like that available some sort of program.
It's just again, doing your research and taking the time to apply. So I was fortunate that I did receive this money. Another thing that helped with funding for my product development was after we launched the smart cookie, we wanted to do new product called the burger master. And we did a Kickstarter campaign for that. Oh, talk to us a little bit about how that works For Kickstarter.
It's a crowdfunding platform where you can list a product or I'm sorry, a business idea doesn't have to be a product. And there's a bunch of users who constantly are on there to see if there's any businesses that they would like to support. And it was really amazing because we had the idea we had the prototype already made, and we just wanted to get a sense of, you know, what, like, is this going to be good?
Are people going to be interested in this product and also to get some seed money to start production? And so we did actually a short campaign. Most campaigns lasts between 30 to 60 days and we did just a 20 campaign and we had a goal of $5,000 and we hit our goal of $5,000 before the campaign ended, I think like halfway through. So by the time it ended, we had exceeded our goal of 5,000 pounds. Oh, that's fabulous.
Now that you've done that and had that experience, is there any advice for someone who wants to do a Kickstarter campaign? Yeah. My advice for the Kickstarter is to make sure you have your media plan in place before you start the campaign. So it's not enough to just throw your product or business idea on there. You project on there, you have to know where your sources are going to come
from. So you need to set up ahead of time, social media channels to say, this is coming, your project is coming, get people excited about it and be able to drive them to the project page before you begin, that was a big learning for us. You might say, if you're just scrolling through the website, you might say, wow, this is incredible. How are these people? It, people are just out there wanting to throw money at
you. Well, there's actually a lot of activities that go on on the backend that you need to prepare for and start before you launch your part. Perfect. Thank you for that advice and congratulations on such a successful Kickstarter campaign. Yes. Thank you. It was, it was very interesting to be a part of that. So we took a little detour here, but let's get back to the conversation about finding that first initial manufacturer Again, it's, you know, asking the questions.
So I was going around, you know, I came up with a tool quotes, like as high as $50,000 and then down to like $14,000, that was the range of difference. Meaning to make the initial product, the initial mold or whatever Exactly. Yeah. To make the mold for the product. And then again, ask you the questions like, well, why is there such a price disparity, you know, and then understanding if I could go with the cheaper version.
So, you know, I went with the cheaper version and then I would just do small batches. I wasn't doing large batches. So a lot of times I know that a and we've had an investor say this to us like, Oh, make a hundred thousand units. And then your per piece cost is going to go down. So that'll be great for you. And I'm like, well, I'm actually, that doesn't make sense for me because I'm not going to invest that much money to have inventory sitting on the shelves in my warehouse.
Right. Right. I mean, that's true over time, but you also still need to test the market and see that people are actually going to buy it. So we're going to get into some of the marketing stuff in a minute, but unless, you know, for sure that there's a demand there, if you're in a situation like this, yeah. Cost per piece is lower, but that's something you can, you can grow into. Don't have to do it right from the start and then just wrap up all your money into inventory. That's right.
But I think that that's what a lot of people do. They are advised to do that, to buy, especially if you go overseas, right. You have to get larger volume. So that was one of the other reasons I wanted to make my product locally so that I could grow organically and take my time and also keep an eye on the production and manufacturing and make sure that each piece was molded properly. And that there were no issues, my product.
So it was a lot of baby steps at the beginning, like just starting small. And if you start small, it's very easy to manage the funds if you're starting like that. Right. So you make a small batch, you sell your first batch and then you can take that money and then reinvest it in another one. Yeah, Exactly.
One quick question here, before we move on, from the time that you had your concept and you had it now as a computer design that you were ready to go and talk with manufacturers to the time you had a product ready for sale, how long was that span? I would say from when I first thought of the idea to when I first had my first molded prototype about 18 months. Okay. So year and a half-ish and then when was it ready for sale?
Once I had the first moldable, the prototype a couple of months after that, You would say a reasonable timeframe because you really shopped around, you did a lot of research in all of that is about two years. I mean, you could probably rush it and go faster, but your experience for this product was about two years. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. For my product, for sure.
It was two years because it did take the time to figure out how it would look and do the design and then figure out where to have it made. So, yeah. And I wasn't doing it full time either when I first thought of it, I was kicking it around in my head and then trying to figure out, do I want to go ahead and do it? How would I do it? So, yeah. All right. And so now you've got your product and I'm sure simultaneously you're thinking of your sales and marketing plan.
Yes. Talk us a little bit, you know, you've got this great product now. How is everyone going to know about it? How are you going to actually make sales? Yeah. So that is the next big challenge. What did you do there? Well, I actually had in my head, I thought, well, you know, this is such an awesome product because when you talk to people about it, right, they're excited. They're enthusiastic. I had a lot of encouragement. So You did some focus group type things. Oh, I talked to everybody.
Okay. Yeah. I talked to everybody. I could think of to ask them the question. What do you think, would you use this? Is this something you've seen before? And What point in the process did you start doing that? Oh, I think right away. I was hoping that's what you'd say. Okay. Yeah, Yeah. Right away.
And then I thought, you know, here, there's a few places that I, cause I worked in the retail environment and I know that I, my job was to meet with a lot of businesses to bring in new products to the store. And so I thought that, Oh, you know, it's not going to be problem because I know it's a unique item and there's a big market out there. And I had done the numbers of how many households would potentially buy this product and have super enthusiastic.
And the first couple of places that I thought were going to, it would be a slam dunk. It was not, let's say a slam dunk, not even close. Okay. So let me back it, back it up. So your strategy then was not directly to consumer. You wanted to go through stores. I did want to go through stores. Yes. So I thought I needed the numbers. You know, she had it into the store versus to consumers directly. Sure. Okay. I just wanted to clarify that before we continued.
Okay. So the first two people saw this awesome product and they took a pass. So Let me give you an example. So we have a major hardware chain here in Canada and it's a Canadian chain and they are, and when I would tell people about this product, they were like, Oh, you should go to this store because they have very cool things. And they're always doing commercials for these unique gifty kitchen, gadgety ideas. This would be perfect for that. So I thought, sure, that's a great idea.
You know, and I thought it's a Canadian product made in Canada. It's perfect for them. It's unique. It solves a problem. It's demonstrable, so they could do a commercial for it. So I went into meet with the buyer. I was really excited. She was really nice. And I even agreed to give her the price. It was lower than I wanted.
And actually at this time, I should mentioned that I had my idea for my next product, which was called the burger master, which is a freezer container that shapes and stores eight quarter pounders at once, which I thought would be maybe more applicable to them because it is a hardware store and they sell barbecues and things like that in the meeting, she was excited about it. And then when I followed up, she decided to do a pass.
She's like, actually yeah, no, I decided I'm not going to go ahead. I'm not going to buy this product. What did you do when you hung up the phone? Well, I was, as you can imagine, I was devastated because I thought this is perfect. How can she not see that this is perfect, but you know what? That was just the first, in many, many struggles that I've had in the business and it's fine now. Like I'm okay with it. You know, I thought, you know, at the time I couldn't believe it, but you know,
why? Like it just made me stronger and made me realize, okay, you know what, let's take a step back. And I changed my strategy. And what I did was instead was I went to independent kitchen stores, local stores, and I presented the smart cookie. So I had it already ready to go and my package and I asked them if they would take my product on consignment because a lot of them were hesitant to like, Oh, I don't know, you're an independent because they're used to dealing with distributors.
And they said, you know, you're an independent, I don't know if we want to bring in an independent product. What if it doesn't sell? And I said, you know what? I'm so confident it's going to sell, I'll give it to you on consignment. And so that's how I started. So then I started to build my stores locally around my city. In two months, I got into about 13 stores. Oh wow. I was getting reorders and developing relationships with the store owners. So it was really great.
It was a great learning for me. And I really learned a lot from the store owners to what they're looking for and what their hesitations are and how I can overcome those hesitations, which really prepared me more for when I met with the bigger buyers. Sure. The thing I like about your story is that you were seeing some resistance from the bigger buyers. And so you didn't just keep doing the same thing you analyzed, what was going on.
You thought about what you needed to tweak in terms of going to a different option for now, you know, the meaning more of the local stores and then also doing the consignment. It's kind of like, why would you not right? Why would they buy a new product? That's so unique and different like this, if they're selling similar types of things, because the customer they were attracting was clearly the customer who would buy your product. I also tell you Sue.
So after a couple of years now selling my products, I have were in some larger chains. And we're also in small independent stores. I find that the independent stores are really a much better fit for my products, just because the staff are so enthusiastic about them because they have a little video player that they get with it as well. And they're so enthusiastic.
And when they meet me, we have such a great relationship and they want to help me succeed that they draw the customers to the products. Like they bring them there. It's not just sitting on the shelf, right. So their customers come in and they say, what's new. What you have that I can buy for my friend, who's having a baby or what can I buy friends getting married? What should I get them? And they dry, you know, take them right to my products and say, this is awesome.
And then the enthusiasm translates. So I don't know if a lot of companies would say the same, but I prefer to be with the smaller independence. And so you were mentioning now that you are also in some larger chains, how did that affect the inventory before we were talking about manufacturing and producing smaller lots, initially what happened as you started building the business to your
inventory? Yes. So, because we had been selling in the smaller stores, we were making money, so I could take that money to build more inventory. So it was growing organically. So I could manage the demand because I was selling smaller amounts. And then once I would get a larger order, I had the money to fund that because I had been selling. Wonderful. Yeah. And then, And so then I did actually get into the bigger chains by going with a distributor.
Okay. Which is something I had learned from the smaller stores. So like, you know, you're probably gonna want to go with a distributor if you want to get into the chains. So, and that's What I did talk a little bit about how that works. Well, actually, so one of the sales reps for distributors saw me in one of the first stores that I had gotten into the independence and he came to me and he said, Oh, it's a great product. Do you have a distributor that you're working with?
So that's how I came to work with them. Got it. And the numbers probably look a little bit differently for the products that are going through to distributor versus the products that you're selling directly to the smaller boutiques. Definitely. Yeah. Okay. All right. But it's The, you know, the volume, right. So sure, sure. It's a balancing act.
Yeah. And I really like what you're talking about in terms of the smaller store sales, then providing you a stable financial platform for the point where you get into the larger ones really worth going. I won't say slow and steady, but medium and steady being able to fund it as you go makes you sleep better at night issue. It sure does. But it also has a proof of concept,
right? Because you can say, well, you know, I am selling right now and I'm getting reorders and I'm getting positive customer feedback. So it gives you proof of concept to go to the larger buyers and say, it's not coming up cold off the street. Like I have support for this product. So after a year of selling my products in stores, my husband actually quit his full-time job and joined the business with me. So now we work together on growing the business. That is awesome.
Was that an initial goal of yours at some point for both of you to be working the business? I don't know. Did you just say, we're looking at the bank account and I'm looking at things that need to get done and we need more help got free free labor row. And if the, you know, he was always Supportive, you know, the funny thing is, is he doesn't even like cookies, but when I came to him with the idea about the smart cookies, like I think that's fantastic. I think, yeah, You should do it.
Let's do it. Oh, that's awesome. He was so supportive and I, yeah, I couldn't have done it without his support obviously. Right. I bet he likes cookies now. Well, he loves burgers. So after the smart cookies, like let's make a product that I would use. So We said, okay, let's do a burger version. And that's the one that yeah. Is near and dear to his heart. There you go. But you know, working together, it's really, It's just been phenomenal.
You know, we've grown the business exponentially since he started. Cause we started with our online activities at that point. So we started getting really into Facebook, which has been huge for us. I know you've talked about the importance of social media businesses. Absolutely. Talk a little bit about what you're doing on social media. That's that's a good place to go next.
Okay. So on Facebook, our product seems to be a perfect fit for Facebook because we do constantly upload videos on how to use the products and the recipes to use with the products and how it'll make your life easier. Because that is my mission. My mission is to help busy households, you know, not just people with kids, but people, you know, who work 12 hours a day, you come home, you want to have something that you can heat at home. You don't want to have to stop off at the grocery
store. You don't want to have to stop off at a fast food restaurant. This is faster than any of those things. So you just go to your freezer, pull it out and heat it in the microwave or on the stove top. And you have a comforting warm meal for you ready to go. So that is my mission to help people make food at home and healthy are to so much healthier. Yeah. And also I have picky eaters. I don't know if anyone out there has picky eaters, but my kids and my husband are all picky eaters.
So now everyone has their own favorite meal ready to go in a container. Right? So one person can have plain rice, one person can have fried rice. Another person can have stew good point. And we all sit down and eat together. We eat the same food. Yeah. And it's great for families with allergies. If you're worried about the cross-contamination right. You can have one container for the person who has a specific food restrictions and it's ready to go. You don't have to make two separate meals.
Right. Okay. So you're doing on Facebook, you're doing video demos. Are you doing any selling directly from Facebook? We do. We do sell directly from Facebook. We started that out of the buy here button a couple of months ago. How's that going? It's amazing. We're drawing people to our website actually just last week. So it's great that we have this podcast today because just last week we had a huge spike in our sales because one of our videos went viral.
I guess it's because spring, I don't know what it was. It was just a video that we had been running for a while about how to use the burgermaster and it just went viral and people were sharing it and sharing it. And we had over 7 million views on that one video. Wow. Yeah, it was amazing. And just the comments people were leaving and we doubled our Facebook following. So we had about 35,000. Now we have 70,000 Facebook followers just within a few days. That's crazy. Congratulations on that.
That's super Was amazing. It was so exciting, you know, just to see the power of social media. Absolutely incredible. Yeah. Were you running targeted ads or who was your audience with these videos? We're running several ads related to the different products, but we found actually that it's more effective to have a wider target target audience set up for your ads.
So because before we were narrowing it more to a smaller age range with different interests, and then once we opened it up, we found it was more of an uptake on people viewing the videos. Very interesting because normally people will say niche it down, you know, go through power editor, niche it down, really identify your audience. Now it's also because of your product, because your product was spans a wide range of people.
Yeah. I think that's the key cause you really, you don't know unless you try, right. You might have a view of, you know, who your target audience is. And then something like, you know, we've even had people come to us and say, well, this would be great for pet food. A lot of people are making their own pet food now. So like, Oh, I would love to use this to make my dog food and you know, things like that. And I'm like, I never would have, I don't have a dog, so I never would have thought of that.
Right. But it's because if you widen the audience and you listen to your customers and you look at the feedback and you look at the comments, you can learn so much from your audience base through social media, You can learn so much from your audience. So true. So true. All right. I want to back up for one second. Cause you had mentioned something when we were talking in store that I just want to capture before we move on. And that was, I heard you really quickly talk about in store.
You also have video playing on how to use the product. Yes, yes. That is correct. Okay. So where in the process did you decide that that was what you were going to do and talk us through how that all was created? We decided to do a video in the store because it was such a new concept. Like there was nothing around that actually did this function,
right? Like no one, even when you try to explain it to people and on our product, we had illustrations on the friend to show people how it, and it was just such a new concept that people really had a hard time grasping. Like how does this actually work? Like how would I actually use this product? So we had to develop a video. So we noticed when we were doing shows, we were at like a craft show or a trade show. We would have a video there and people would just sit and watch the video.
They wouldn't come and talk to us. They would just kind of stand a few feet away and just stand and watch the video. And then we would see them nodding their heads like, Oh, okay. Yeah. So we wanted to take that experience and put it into the stores beside the product so that the onus wasn't all on the sales person to try and paint a picture for them. We really needed to be able to show quickly in 30 seconds, how easily it works and what you would use it
for. So do you provide what a rotating loop video to any store that purchases your product? Or is it a requirement? It's not a requirement, but we highly encourage the stores to get the video player. So depending on the order size, we'll give you the video player for free, or you can purchase the video player because, and even when you purchase it, we've subsidized the cost of the video player. So it's like, you'd go buy on yourself.
It's at a better cost because we found that stores have told us that when you have the player, it just sells itself. People can see it, they like it. They want it it's easy. Right. And so all they need is a power source, Use a power source plug and play. But also we find a lot of stores now have their own monitor in the store. So they just say, Oh, just send me where your website is or your YouTube channel. And I'll just play it from there. I don't even need my own video player.
Yeah. Well, and anything you can do to assist them to move product is a win-win for both of you. Definitely. Yeah. So that's why you need to keep a handle on the relationship with the store owners to see what they need, because not everybody wants to have a video player and if they don't need a video player, then we'll give the marketing material to support which specific product they have to show the different uses. So we're very open to working individually with the stores.
It sounds like though, you've done a comparison and people who are doing the player are moving more product. Yes. Yeah. Or they're playing the video themselves. Right. They have, they have a way to find type of a demo. Yes, definitely. All right, Maya, we're going to move on now to the reflection section. This is where we look at you and your activities and what you're doing that makes you so successful.
I want you to think back when you were little baking those cookies, you've already talked about the fact that, you know, you've kind of had that entrepreneurial spirit the whole time, but what specific trait is it that you call on each and every time? So that you're successful? I would say the most beneficial trait I have is the ability to push the envelope and to ask questions.
So I know that people's tendencies is to stay within their comfort zone, you know, and to just use experiences that they had. I try to push people to think differently just because you've done one way. Doesn't mean you can't try another way. When I started a lot of the people I was talking to, they're like, well, you can't make this here. You can't make a locally. You're going to have to go to China. Like there's no way you can't make the costs work.
You're not going to be able to find the expertise here that you need. I just stuck to my guns. And I kept asking questions and looking for the right people who were there, who were going to support me and work with me and go forward with new challenges with me. So I think that was the most important thing in building my business was just asking the question, like, why not? When people would say, Oh, you can't do that. And I would say, why not?
Usually when you ask people that question, they don't have a good answer. You know, they're usually they, their first instinct, not maliciously, but just their first instinct is to say, no, no, no, we don't do it that way. And then just to say, why not really opens it up and gets people thinking? And that's really what I try to do. Cause I have a goal and I have a end point in mind and I want to get there. Yeah. You know what?
That's really big Maya, because most people would just accept that and stop give biz listeners. I want you to think about this because what Maya is saying is why not prove it, prove that I can't do it. And she went out to prove that she could. And it's those people who challenge the standard thought process. If you will, who are able to create products like Maya's doing. So if you have an idea, you have a concept.
Someone has said to you, it's not going to work or has, have given you any type of resistance. Listen to what Maya's saying here and consider to yourself, ask and why not. Okay. Really good point. I love that. You said that what tool in your normal course of a day, do you use regularly to keep productive at the office or to keep yourself balanced with your work life versus your family? I would say the biggest tool for our business is
Facebook. Just because you have that immediate connection with your audience right away, you get a sense of whether something is successful or you need to tweak it a little bit more. You get that immediate response. And if you take the time to put out content and then review how the content is performing, I think a lot of businesses might just throw things up and not really track what's working. What's not working.
And they just keep trying to add content, add content, but we really like to review it, get the customer feedback and change course, if necessary, if we're finding that something is not resonating or not applicable to our audience, You're using Facebook as really a communication tool. And it sounds like you're getting quite a bit of engaged. Yeah, it's amazing. I love it personally. I was not a big fan of Facebook, but for business it's invaluable.
Cool. And do you have any tips for people of how you balance being an entrepreneur in your life and also raising a young family with a pet bunny? You know, I think Being with my husband makes it easier because we are both working together and then we can trade off with the children. We're both with each other all the time. And then we can work with the kids childcare and things like that.
We're still trying to figure out how to balance everything because as you can imagine, the internet is so much opportunity, but also provides immediate access and it never shuts off. So we're always answering questions from our customers 24 seven, because we're so enthusiastic. We want to get back to them right away. We don't want to have a big delay in response. Sure. I think balance and things change too.
Not only does the internet change, but your family changes as your girls get older, their needs will keep changing. So I think balance is always an issue. That's true. And if any of your listeners have any tips for them, Fun out of balance, keep listening to the podcast because everyone gives another answer. Right? That's true. Have you read them book lately that you think our listeners would find value in?
Yeah. I actually just read a book Called the confidence game by Maria Konnikova and she talks about people who are con men, the tactics that they use, which I am not using for my business. I'm not trying to caught anyone, but it was really interesting because the learning in that book was that you need to listen more than you talk. You need to be able to listen to people when they're not just customers, even suppliers or anyone that you're dealing with, what are they looking for?
What kind of problems are they trying to solve? What are they hesitant about? So you can't get that information unless you're listening. And I think a lot of times people just want to get their agenda out there and they'd talk and talk and talk and return. They're not really listening. That was really something that made me think, Oh, that's a good point. I really should focus on listening.
And it's something you have to really make an effort to do sometimes is to just be still and just listen to the person that you're talking to. So that was a good reminder for me. I'm always so eager to get going and I need to take the time to calm down and then settle and listen, and then prepare my answer.
Yeah. Sometimes the answers can be when you're listening based on whatever you're talking about, but the confidence game, I don't know that I'm going to have to check into that book and gift biz listeners, just as you're listening to the podcast today, you can also listen to audio books with ease. I've teamed up with audible for you to be able to get an audio book, just like the confidence game for free. Just jump over to gift biz, book.com and pick a book.
All right, Maya, I would like you to join me in dare to dream. I'd like to present you with a virtual gift. It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future. This is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable Heights that you would wish to obtain. Please accept this gift and open it in our presence. What is inside your box?
I have big dreams and my would be to have one of my containers in every freezer across the globe, because I want everyone to be able to eat healthier, lead, more organized, healthier lives. And so that is what I would like. I would like people to try it out and be able to use it every day because I know it's changed my life and has changed a lot of my customer's lives.
And I also want to continue to help to motivate and teach young entrepreneurs as well because that's very important to me is to share my Learnings because I think that everyone Can learn from other's experiences. And I'm very big on sharing that and also learning. I, you know, I find in my classes that I learned from my students as much as they learn from me. So that's something I would like to continue. Well, you never stopped learning true. If you're open to it, you Have to be open to it.
And I definitely am Absolutely well, I love this idea and we're going to help you hopefully start filling up those freezers all across America and the world. I guess I should say if there were one or two places that you would direct our listeners to go to have more information about you or the product, what would those be? So my website is shape and store.com. You can send me an email@mayaatshapeandstore.com, M a Y a@shapeandstore.com and visit us on Facebook.
And we also have a YouTube channel where we have all our words, Ideas, and as you all know, jump over to our show notes page at gift biz, unwrapped.com. And there you will see all of Maya's contact information and everything involving this episode, right there. Ready and waiting for you. I would also like to be, You mentioned that last week after we had our huge sales spike, that we became the number two most wished for item on amazon.com. No way and kitchen and dining. Yeah. Our burger master.
Wow. How did you find out? Well, you can Go and you can just look at the rankings on the website on Amazon. We were in the top 10 before, but now we're at number two and we're actually sold out. So it still continues to go. So we're very excited about that. Wow. This is a way that we can help you realize this dream. Maya, we didn't even talk about you being on Amazon at all, but if someone were to go and search on Amazon, is it just under shape and store? You can do shape and store.
You can do the burger master the smart cookie, and they're all linked to the other products. So if you click on those two, then you'll see our other parts. Perfect. While I'm so glad you shared that. And man, Maya, you are moving in shaken with this product TRIBE. Yeah, sure. Brian, and thank you for your support. Everyone got so much support. So yes. Thank you. I loved sharing this story. I really appreciate you giving a deep dive into how the product was created.
It just helps motivate other people who have ideas of their own. Look what Maya's done with this all the way up to huge, super success, both on Facebook then on Amazon And Maya, we hope that your candle continues to always burn bright. Thank you. Sue learn how to work smarter while developing and growing your business. Download our guide called 25 free tools to enhance your business and life. It's our gift to you and available@giftbizonrap.com slash tools.
Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the next episode. Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company, looking for a new income source for your gift business. Customization is more popular now than ever grant your product with your logo for print, a happy birthday, Jessica, to add to a gift right at checkout, it's all done right in your shop for cross studio in seconds. Check out the ribbon print company.com for more information.
Would you like to be on the show or do you know someone who can provide valuable insight from their experiences? If so, we'd love to hear from you. All you need to do is submit a form for consideration. You can access the form@giftunwrapped.com forward slash guest gift biz, unwrapped.com forward slash S.